Some time back I signed up to receive a daily email digest from Quora. This is a website
which hosts discussions on every subject imaginable, and you choose the topic areas you
are interested in. Like most web users I’ve learned to be very selective about what I
spend time on, but some topics on Quora catch my eye, and I read further. A couple of
recent discussions drew my attention. ‘Is it too late for adults to learn to play the
violin? Many people say you should begin as a child, since it’s difficult if you begin at
a later age.’ And from a teenager: ‘I am 15 gonna be 16 soon, is it too late to start
playing electric guitar? Van Halen is my inspiration. What are your tips to learn those
awesome solos fast?’ Both questions occasioned some very helpful responses from
experienced players, with a mixture of encouraging and cautionary advice. You can find
these discussions yourself by searching at https://www.quora.com
The questions on Quora reminded me of the day I followed up a want ad in my local
newspaper from a guy who was selling a soft case for a guitar. As my son needed a case I
went to the vendor’s house and discovered that he was a teenager who had given up the
guitar because he found it too difficult. We had a chat about it and I tried to give him
some encouragement, though he seemed to have decided definitely that the guitar was not
for him. I left having bought the case but feeling saddened that someone was missing out
on the pleasure of making music for himself.
The latest issue of British Bluegrass News contains a letter from a reader bemoaning the
lack of open jam sessions at UK bluegrass festivals she attended this year. Other
musicians told her that ‘this is just the way things are these days’. There is some
concern in Britain about this UK trend. The writer of the letter contrasts her recent
experience with her enjoyment of British bluegrass festivals thirty years ago. She
explains, “I wasn’t one to sit in concert halls for three days – in fact you’d
rarely find me in there at all. I went to jam with other musicians…..Everyone had a
chance all weekend to enjoy making music, whatever their ability……Beginners learned
quickly how to feel their way through chord changes and cottoned on to more songs in an
afternoon than they could grasp in a week of sitting alone with a songbook.”
Amateur musicians need the opportunity and encouragement to learn music which helps them
push the boundaries of their knowledge and technique. I guess this applies to all of us
who play instruments. Speaking of the late great Kenny Hall, Harry Leidstrand of the
Sweet’s Mill String Band, once remarked, “Kenny likes music that he can play.”
This comment and much else about Kenny Hall can be found in an excerpt from the film by
Chris Simon “I Hear What You See: The Old-Time World of Kenny Hall”, at https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LOqhGlpMBE The message is to learn some good tunes that you can
sit down and play – and enjoy your music! Kenny Hall remarked at the Sweet’s Mill Folk
Music Camp in 1972, “Sweet’s Mill opens everybody up. You’re just yourself, that’s
all y’are, and that’s the only way to be.”
The opportunity to hear some great music and to participate in music sessions yourself
has been the great strength of bluegrass festivals since the 1960s. I trust that this
tradition is as strong as ever in California and throughout the USA, and that festival
goers will continue to pick and sing themselves, as well as listening to the bands on
stage.
John Baldry
October 2017
